After the media turmoil earlier this month, this story about Drew Faust should need to retraction or further clarification. It profiles her as competent, open, listening, and diplomatic - traits that bode well for a new chapter in Harvard-Allston/Brighton relations.

Faust, who said through a spokesman that she was unavailable for an interview, impressed department chairs at a recent meeting when she said she planned to move deliberately and consult a wide variety of faculty and others as Harvard fine-tunes its 50-year expansion plan for its Allston campus, Eck said. By comparison, Summers gave the impression that he would move quickly on Allston and not necessarily consider faculty concerns, Eck and others said.

Allston community activists said they have not seen enough of Faust to judge her. But Mayor Thomas M. Menino said he has been impressed by Faust's affable manner with Allston residents at neighborhood events.